I don't know if I'm just cranky because I haven't been able to play paintball outside for several months, but in the past few weeks I've been really bothered by the lack of courtesy I've been seeing in our Buy/Sell forums.

I love the sales forums here. It's really the only place I buy other than ebay. There are good rules that are fairly enforced and most people conduct themselves in a professional manner. Sure, new folks show up occasionally and are unaware of the rules and culture here. In the interest of helping some of our newer (and a few of our older ) members, I thought I'd put up a list of things that aren't quite against the rules, but are poor form and, well, a little rude.

Don't try to use creative methods to get around the rules. For example, one of our rules here is that you must post a price for items for sale. Fishing for the highest price is expressly forbidden. Posting $1000 OBO for your stock tippman A-5 is an obvious attempt to circumvent the rules. Post a reasonable price. If you don't know what to ask, there is an "ask the experts" forum where you can get help.

If somebody posts a price that seems too high to you, it's not your job to point it out to them. Sure, they may be violating point #1 above. Maybe they really think the item is worth the price they listed. Hell, maybe you're wrong and somebody will pay their price. If you really are just trying to help them out, send them a PM with your estimate on the item's value. They'll either modify their asking price or ignore you. It's their item and they can ask whatever they want. Most folks on here are pretty knowledgeable about marker values, and are not going to get ripped off.

If you are interested in buying an item, PM the seller. I cannot understand why someone would post "I'm interested, PM me." If you're interested enough to buy, surely you can take a moment to send a PM. And while we're on the subject, "Interested, PM me your lowest price" is even ruder. They posted a price. If you feel that you don't like that price, it's up to you to make an offer. The civilized way of negotiating is offer-counteroffer. The seller offered the item at a price per the rules. If you're afraid of offering too much, a PM'd lowball offer is much less insulting than a posted "PM Lowest price"

I'm sure there are more, but those are the three that have been bothering me most. I'm sure that the worst offenders will never read this, just as they never read the rules. I just wanted to get this off my chest. thanks for playing along!

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Last edited by CJOttawa; 10-21-2011 at 07:30 AM.